4 ms·

>Of course, none of this is cheap, and neither are the tickets. It's not uncommon to find plane tickets cheaper than Shinkansen tickets. And even going 3 statio

by teirce 9y ago

>Of course, none of this is cheap, and neither are the tickets. It's not uncommon to find plane tickets cheaper than Shinkansen tickets. And even going 3 stations from Shibuya to Shinjuku will cost you 2 dollars on the Yamanote line. You could easily spend 10 dollars a day on a daily basis just getting around the city, and multiply that by the number of people who use the system, and it's a fortune. I spent some time in Tokyo and found the subway both amazingly useful and cheap. But I also must compare it to the public transit in the US where I live (non-usable bus system), and that of San Francisco -- which was much more expensive and not nearly as well maintained. When the usual for me is a $6 Uber one-way to a bar that's barely 2 miles away, it blew my mind that I would regularly get across Tokyo for ~$5-10. I returned from Tokyo with a loathing of the overwhelmingly car-centric cities of the U.S.

bootlooped 9y ago
Of all of the Asian subway systems I've used, Tokyo was the most expensive and most complicated. The fact that there are 3 different rail systems that are not seamlessly integrated is a pain. Not necessarily their problem, but I also found some stations that were very hard to use for non-Japanese speakers. Still, this is almost certainly better than every subway network in the US.
- wst_ 9y ago
  They are seamless for some time now. You pay with the same card and lines are connected. At least JR and Metro is.
pcurve 9y ago
"I spent some time in Tokyo and found the subway both amazingly useful and cheap" I like getting around cities by public transit too, but Tokyo Subway system is rather complicated and expensive. You pay by distance in pretty granular fashion and there are several private companies operating, and not always compatible. Seoul subway system is basically flat rate and much simpler, with free transfer to buses.

by teirce 9y ago

bootlooped 9y ago

Of all of the Asian subway systems I've used, Tokyo was the most expensive and most complicated. The fact that there are 3 different rail systems that are not seamlessly integrated is a pain. Not necessarily their problem, but I also found some stations that were very hard to use for non-Japanese speakers. Still, this is almost certainly better than every subway network in the US.

wst_ 9y ago
They are seamless for some time now. You pay with the same card and lines are connected. At least JR and Metro is.

pcurve 9y ago

"I spent some time in Tokyo and found the subway both amazingly useful and cheap" I like getting around cities by public transit too, but Tokyo Subway system is rather complicated and expensive. You pay by distance in pretty granular fashion and there are several private companies operating, and not always compatible. Seoul subway system is basically flat rate and much simpler, with free transfer to buses.